And it all came crashing down...

Wow... I can't believe its been two months since my last post. Well... I can and I can't. It seems like it was just last week when I was happily typing away on my Christmas Quilt project and how everything seemed to be moving full steam ahead.

And then it suddenly wasn't.

My computer crashed, and it crashed hard. Yes, I had a computer crash earlier this year, where the beautiful workhorse I had built to my specifications turned up toes and went home to that great motherboard in the sky. There was panic, there was SERIOUS PANIC, panic in the ways of stomach turning and tears that I had lost all of my photography files, cross stitch patterns, etc.  Thankfully, the majority of my files were able to be salvaged and put onto an external hard drive. We had purchased a refurbished computer for Richard not much earlier, but without any fanfare he quietly set up his new-to-him-but-used computer and went back to using his old one.

Well, at least I didn't actually kill the "new" one... I just overwhelmed it to the point where it was running massively slow and then finally froze up. Its simple 1 TB drive (hey, if it isn't a baking measurement then the size means nothing to be, other than its supposed to be a lot) was overwhelmed by all of my photo, music and pattern files and just couldn't hold any more. It drew a line in the sand that I hadn't even noticed and that final month of churning out cross stitch patterns right and left are not only what took me across that line, but absolutely obliterated it.

This time there were no moments of tears and frustration... only that sinking feeling in my stomach as I came to the realization that the earlier temporary bandage had hemorrhaged under the amount of pressure I had placed on it. Instead of a cast to help the system heal I had left the jury-rigged splint on, failed to maintain it and just kept on running in a marathon that I had no business inflicting on it.

So we first purchased a new external hard drive... 5 TB this time, and Richard slowly began transferring files over. Sadly, a lot didn't make it through the transition, but I didn't now that for sure until we managed to get me a new (not sorta new but not really... this one here is The Real McCoy). Even better, this one came with a seriously nice 27" widescreen monitor... something my aging eyes is very grateful for.

So what has been lost?

I seem to still have most of my music files, and the photography is good, though I lost all of the more recent edited shots, so i'll have to edit them again if I want those specific shots back. I have, however, lost all of my recently worked up cross stitch pattern files (over 200, which equates to several hundreds of hours), which breaks my heart, but its nothing I can't rebuild, given time. Its a project I should be well in the middle of replacing, but winter is really playing havoc with my health, so I haven't had much time that I can spend in front of the computer.

Basically I have lost all of the work I have done since my last computer crash earlier this year. My computer had been set up to back up to the external hard drive on a regular basis, but didn't and it failed to notify me that it wasn't performing its routine back up (something I have now learned to verify for myself rather than trusting technology to do it for me).

I now keep the majority of my files on external drives, rather than tax my computer's systems. One drive (my 5 TB workhorse that I have lovingly named "Big Red", because he's red, he's not huge physically, but hey, its the biggest drive i've ever owned, thanks  to Amazon holding an amazing sale), and my 1 TB "Old Blue" (not really old, but he's older than Red and, yes, he is blue) is going to be solely for back ups. I'll purchase a 3rd drive soon that I will transfer all of our music files to (as well as digitize that big box of CDs sitting in my office) so Richard and I can shuttle music between ourselves as needed, as Red is going to be slowly filled up between my photo and pattern files, and the amount of music we have already digitized is pretty substantial.

So yes, this time I am doing it right, and even though it will take time, I will retrace my steps and remake the patterns that were lost. Now that I have a computer to get back online with, the posts will start coming on a regular basis again. I am sorry it has taken this long to start it back up, but now that the injury has been dealt with (instead of field dressings think Steve Austin's Six Million Dollar Man... we had the technology and my computing capabilities certainly got a nice upgrade), I can make up for the lost time and get to it. Best of all, the old computing speed is now a thing of the past, so I should be able to cut those hundreds of hours down to something a little more manageable.

Its great to be back, and I hope that you will hang in there as I get everything back on track and do things right this time.

Thanks for being there everyone, and I hope that all is well in whatever part of the world that you find yourself in.

Oh, and don't forget your back ups!

New Projects and Seeking Permission

New patterns are ready to upload, and I am just waiting on the official go ahead from Tor Publishing saying I have their approval to share them.

Want a sneak peek into what I am talking about? It has something to do with this image and 51 similar illustrations, all taken from the same body of work.

For anyone who knows me, patience is a virtue that has yet to sink in and really take hold... I probably should have stopped after I worked up the first few patterns until I had permission to publish these, but I was so excited that I just plowed full steam ahead (as I usually do).

So here I sit, a bunch of new patterns in hand and nothing to do but wait.

You know, Tom Petty was right... the waiting is the hardest part.

Stitching my first nerd-love pattern

Am I allowed to use the term, "nerd girl"? I am sure that there are millions of girls out there just tossing out this phrase, and far be it for me to jump on the bandwagon...but what to say otherwise? Geek Girl is just as trendy, Nostalgia Nerd is a bit wordy, though it is actually pretty accurate and I am fairly certain no one is using it yet.

Lemme check...

Dang it, it IS being used.

Oh well, Nerd Girl for now I suppose. I'll have to think on what else to call it some more...regardless, my first, fully realized, getting-my-literary-childhood-geek-on pattern was a blast to do. I had fun playing with the pattern design, with stitching it up, with being SEEN stitching it up (so I could excitedly bore the pants off of anyone who asked about the project) and even with snapping photos of my progress every day or so just to dweeb out over the images on my phone.

Like I said, I'm a geek...now lets deal with it and move on, okay?

Now, less we forget what it is that I am talking about, maybe a tiny little refresher might be in order.  You see, I am a big Trixie Belden fan, and have been for nearly 40 years .. close enough that the actual count really isn't an issue. I can place the blame squarely on my paternal Grandmother (THANK YOU GRANDMA!) who gave me a copy of book #18 Mystery of the Phantom Grasshopper not too long after it first came out in 1977. She found it at a yard sale, and thought it might be something I would like (we both loved to read).

There was no big fanfare about it...our family showed up one day to visit and she handed it over saying, "here, I thought you might like this."  No angels sang, no marching band with twirling batons ablaze marked the moment, but still, a love was born that day.

Zip ahead a few decades and here I am, with a newly-printed pattern in my hot little hands and all my skeins organized and ready to go. I could almost hear faintly in the back of my mind, "Houston, preparing for lift-off in 5...4... 3... 2... 1....." 

I'm sure that I haven't quite nearly enough explained how much I love this piece of my childhood (and adulthood, I'm not ashamed to say I still read my Trixie books, in fact, I still have all 34 of the Trixie titles Golden Publishing put out at that time. How many kids can claim to still own an entire series of books from their childhood that their mother didn't make them save? I even still have that very copy that started it all, though I have a duplicate copy to read now so I don't wear out my old one as quickly).

Again, I head off into tangents (and run-on alliterative sentences!)...sorry Houston...where were we on that countdown?

Ah yes...BLAST OFF!

My first few stitches were momentarily confusing (what's with the pale lavender? Did Trixie have a shadow under her eyes that I hadn't remembered?) Still, with each new stitch the excitement grew. My husband sweetly oohed and aahed every time he saw me stitching, but he truly was happy that I was cross stitching again after such a long break (hand tremors...ugh...one of the joys my health tosses at me from time to time).

Only a few days in it was recognizable (to me anyway) what the finished piece would be...everything but those few pale purple stitches...those, I admit, were really bothering me. Sadly, I couldn't deal with them yet as they were securing my foundation stitches...I would have to wait until I had a lot more stitches laid down before I could even think of ripping them out... which I eventually did. It turns out the program read Trixie's blue eyes as a purple and plotted accordingly. I didn't notice when I was buying my embroidery thread, as the pattern had a thin, blue line around one edge of the oval frame, so I saw blue thread and thought "oh, that's for her eyes."

Nope. Thank goodness it was a problem easily corrected later on....wait...more on that in a moment.

  

In these first few shots you can see her face is quickly taking shape

Even more so now...wow, just going by the photos, the stitches are just flying by!

Wow, that orange is BRIGHT, but its definitely my girl coming through the stitches.

                             

Ugh! That purple is driving me nuts...time for those stitches to GO!

Try to always keep your seam ripper/embroidery scissors handy...you don't want to be a doofus like me and risk ruining all your hard work by using tools like a screwdriver and a full-size, wickedly sharp pair of Gingher scissors! Please note: in any other situation, I cannot praise Gingher's scissors highly enough! They are well worth investing in for your fabric and thread cutting needs! 

(not that they need me to sing their praises...they know how amazing they are!)  

Whew, glad THAT's over.

                                                                                                                                                                 

Pretty new blues and I love how the colors make her eyes pop!

  

Now to finish up on the hair and that background

As far as the original pattern was concerned, this was complete, but that cut-off bottom edge looks very sloppy. Unfortunately, the original image that I used had the rest cut off.

And, voila, she is complete! I love how PC Stitch's program allows me to add additional stitches onto the pattern...and, thankfully, for this project it wasn't too hard to continue the shirt, based off the illustration on the back of the book jacket. 

So what happens now.  Well, as much as I loved doing this piece, I eventually decided before I was finished that I would stitch it again, but this time on a creamy yellow fabric, rather than the black.  The black is lovely, but, if you'll look back at the original book cover, the books were printed with a golden shade of yellow backdrop.  I think stitching on yellow would just feel more true to the look and feel of the books.  

So what about this one? Hmmm...I really don't have any followers as of yet, so offering it as a giveaway would be rather pointless.  I'll probably put it up for sale in my Etsy shop or offer it in one of the Trixie groups I am a member of on Facebook.  That way someone who likes the piece, but doesn't have the time (I won't say inclination, because how could someone not love cross stitch???) will be able to add it to their collection.

Or maybe I WILL save it for a giveaway...in about a decade when I manage to pay off some people to follow me ;D

Free Cross Stitch Pattern - Episcopal Church of the US

Yesterday I got into a chat on FaceBook with a gal about which program I use to create my cross stitch patterns. She had a project in mind and wasn't sure about how to get her pictures converted so she could start stitching.

I asked what image she was wanting to work with, figuring it would be a family picture or pet, or something similar, and asked her to email it to me and I would see what I could do with it. This way she could see what the program could do and decide if it was something she wanted to invest in.

(My thoughts/review about using the program PC Stitch will be posted later this weekend!)

I was surprised when I opened her message that she then said she had TWO projects, and she was including both images.

Oh boy, I thought...I walked right into that one. Being a nice person though I downloaded both files to see what it was I was working with.  To my amazement it was nothing I would have ever guessed as my first "commission"..

Turns out her request was to create two patterns for her Episcopal church that she could enjoy stitching, have framed and then donate to hang in the church for all the congregation to enjoy.

Being unfamiliar with these specific religious symbols, I nonetheless found the shield to be a simple image to translate into a pattern, however the cross was another story. That required building from scratch as the program muddled all the lines of the Celtic-style lines on the cross and the lines of the woven rope border.

Challenge accepted.

Honestly, once I started on the cross it was more a matter of removing all the additional shades of blue the program loves to add to a pattern (again, more on that with my next post), and then to create a negative space for the details so the project could be stitched using just one color. Matching up the lines proved to be more trial and error. 

Believe me when I say that math (specifically geometry and graphing) were never my strong suit, but I had so much fun with trying to get the final pattern as close to the original image as possible.The requested size (around 5" x 7" on a 16-count cloth) was pretty restrictive, but thankfully, it worked out after a few hours of playing around.

It didn't feel right to accept payment, though one was offered, and it was then that I decided to share them here; the first of many free downloadable patterns I hope to offer. The Shield pattern is stitched with 3 colors (red, white and blue) and the Cross is simply one shade of blue. 

My apologies in advance if the colors listed in the patterns are not the exact shades of blue or red that they should be: feel free to pick up the proper colors (or ones more to your liking) when you purchaseyour stitching supplies.

So, if you have a need for these patterns, feel free to help yourself. I do ask, however, that if you share it with others to please not remove my logo or web information. To download a PDF files of the patterns, simply click on the link underneath its corresponding image.

Will I address religion again in the future? Possibly. Its a touchy subject for many, as religion is a vast scope embracing everything from all walks of Christianity to Paganism and even Science these days, and I am not really sure how much demand there is for such a thing. Feel free to comment below if there is anything religious you think I should try tackling in the future, or what other fun project you might want to see offered as a free pattern.

Happy stitching!

Shawna

                                                           Episcopal Cross for the US

                                                                        

                                                                    Episcopal Shield

My love of cross stitch

I now have four cross stitch patterns up for sale in my shop, 3 of which are of my favorite teen detective, Trixie Belden. I am also working on several non-book patterns, and it is so satisfying to be creating again. I am especially thrilled because its CROSS STITCH, which is a craft that I love and adore (cue up the angelic choir). How fun to take an image, transform it into a grid full of mystifying symbols and then follow that lovely crafty road map to create a work of art that can be framed to hang on the wall!

For those who love cross stitch and embroidery, it is a wonderfully relaxing medium that is easily portable and can be done anywhere. After a series of surgeries these last few years (none of which were hand-related, go figure), my hands grew shaky and I wasn't able to stitch, much to my dismay. Thankfully, over time (and with some knitting and crochet "therapy" my shakiness has subsided enough that I can stitch again, though on a slightly larger weave of fabric than I usually prefer. I am certain that, with time, I will once again be stitching away on ever-smaller and daintier weaves, but, for now, I am just happy to be able to stitch in any form.

Its now become my routine to sit quietly in my living room, overhead lamp shining golden light around me as I stitch away, and I find it to be such a serenely satisfying and peaceful way to end my day. There is nothing like the soothing rhythm of pulling thread through fabric repeatedly and watching an image magically being created right before your eyes.

I discovered cross stitch in much the same way I discover anything crafty: I see someone else doing it, figure out how its done and then dive in. With stitching, it was watching my mother when she started a sampler pattern of garden vegetables. She hadn't gotten very far, and her project bag sat in the back of the car one Sunday and throughout Sacrament Meeting I could feel the temptation rising. I tried ignoring it, squelching it down and focusing my attention on the speaker and the lesson, but to no avail... I just HAD to try stitching and waiting simply would not do.

So I did what any young teenage would-be crafter would do: I faked a headache and got mom to allow me to go "rest" in the car for the rest of church. I had to fight to look sick and tired and hurting as I walked to the car, but inside my thoughts were gleefully skipping and giving myself mental high fives.

Not a single guilty feeling for lying, especially on the Sabbath, was in sight.

I studied the pattern for awhile, trying to make sense of it, before making my first few stitches. Thankfully, mom had left her project with a threaded needle already in use, so it made recognizing
where I was in the pattern and figuring out the symbol that that shade of grey-green followed.

A counted cross stitch pattern can be a truly confusing thing to the uninitiated

I suppose I should take a moment to point out that there is more than one form of cross stitch... there is printed cross stitch, in which a regular piece of cotton has the pattern stamped onto its surface and all you have to do is stitch an "x" wherever x marks the spot on the pattern (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun). Pillowcases, tea towels and the like often come stamped as you wouldn't want to wipe your face on the scratchier Aida cloth that comes woven with holes in it typically used in cross stitch.

Then there is my favorite: counted cross stitch, in which you have a pattern full of lovely symbols (shown above) and a color key, which translates the symbols into specific colors. DMC, which stands for Dollfus-Mieg & Compagnie, a French embroidery manufacturer who has become the industry standard worldwide, although you can find conversion charts for other thread companies, such as Anchor, and smaller companies, such as Mill Creek, utilize specialty threads from specific vendors.

Ah, now the chart makes more sense, doesn't it?

Nearly any image can be converted into cross stitch: when I first became interested (mid 1980's), my mother was receiving a membership to a monthly cross stitch magazine (all of which, I have since inherited). In the back were ads offering to turn beloved family and pet photos into personalized cross stitch patterns (the idea of which thrilled me to the bone, though the outrageous $50+ price tags were another story). In the late 1990's that software program became available to the general public, but cost over $350! Not that I owned a computer to use it on, even if I could have scraped together the money to pay for the program.

My first "homemade" cross stitch pattern was one in which I used a magnifying glass to better see a simple pattern offered in a catalog and drawing it out onto graph paper, then picking out the colors I wanted to use out of my mother's small stash. I even adapted it as the original picture of two little girls sitting back-to-back had bonnets on their heads so you couldn't see their hair (all the easier to stitch I suppose). Not liking that idea, I braided brown and yellow floss into braids, tied them with a contrasting thread as "hair ribbons" and had them coming out from under the bonnets: "real" thread braids that hung free from the fabric, adding a depth of dimension the original pattern didn't offer.

Next I pulled out my trusting graph paper and copied a pattern found in an old book for miniature quilts whose color I changed to red and various deep greens to turn them into hanging Christmas ornaments that several family members received for Christmas that year. Those pattern sheets, created in the early 1990's, are still in my cross stitch pattern drawer and I have plans to adapt them once again this year.

The times since have changed. That ever-elusive pattern software that no one I knew could afford became reasonable in the last few years...how do I know? Easy, I now own it. Its a marvelous tool for taking an image and making a pattern, but it still has its own issues, which, thankfully, the program allows you to correct, or to draw your own pattern from scratch. For example, I will be posting shortly about a pattern I am testing that had a section that had to be erased and redrawn in the correct colors, but more on that later.

Its because I learned to draw my own patterns on graph paper that makes it easy to use my cross stitch pattern creator...something I never thought would be handy when I was young and simply copying out patterns because I couldn't afford to purchase. Its funny how life works out sometimes, isn't it?

The best part about cross stitch, to me at least, is the ease at which you can find patterns these days. Thanks to the internet, what was once only found in a magazine or in the pages of a print catalog (with their limited selections to choose from) you can now go to Etsy and find loads of inventive and fun projects to stitch...from simple back-stitched phrases and simple figures, to elaborate landscapes. Google search "cross stitch patterns" and hundreds, if not thousands, of free patterns are available at your fingertips, simply waiting for you to save and print.

If you haven't discovered the joys of cross stitch for yourself, then I highly suggest you give it a try.